Break
by Wakadooia
Summary: (Part one of the "Shatter" series) Despite travelers from an alternate timeline, something extremely important gets broken before it can be prevented. Now hell is going to break loose.
1. Chapter 1

Optimus Prime looked at the Plasma energy chamber, which in itself resided in a large cavernous chamber.  
The type of chamber that made you feel small with it large grey roof and walls with an equally dismal cold chill meandering around the room.

The Energy chamber - for now - was quiet, its domed surface held nothing different from the last time Optimus Prime checked it, nor did any of the red adornments to the chamber.

It remained as unused as ever.

Prime was so engrossed with the chamber that Perceptor's entrance did not rouse him until they were shoulder to shoulder.

"Something wrong Prime?" Perceptor patted the leader's shoulder strut.

Optimus let his large red shoulders sag with a tired sigh.  
"I'm sorry Perceptor, I just feel like something's... wrong... I keep getting mixed visions from the Matrix. Sometimes bad, sometimes good."

"Yes, Magnus had told me you had been having these, ah, premonitions" Perceptor nodded, giving another pat in an attempt to relay comfort.

"It probably sounds stupid to say after so long, but sometimes I wish the matrix gave coherent visions" Optimus rubbed his chin before shrugging and putting on a more jovial tone "It would make dealing with whatever the problem is much easier"

"Hm, oh! Yes!" The humor took a moment to land in the scientist's processor and he let out a small titter "Ah, it'd be no fun if things were too easy!"

Optimus had already begun to leave, leaving Perceptor to hurry to his side.

"So, the young ones are on a special mission all their own today then?" The two Autobots travelled away from the energy chamber.

"Yes! I have high hopes for their success!" Even with the mask over his face, you could tell Prime was smiling.

"Quite interesting the Dinobots could detect the pollution in the water stream! I highly doubted they would even be able to recognise any change in chemical structure. Of course, I had to verify this claim from them…" Perceptor busied himself with explaining just about everything that had happened.

Optimus responded to the vocal barrage with several vague 'mmm's and nods before silencing the smaller mech with a hand on his shoulder.

"Perceptor?"

"Yes Prime?"

"Shush" as if to reinforce his statement he held a finger to the approximate location of his lip plates.  
"They will be fine, all they need to do is locate the source of the contaminant and dispose of it. I trust they can do that and then the Dinobot's can return to their favourite river instead of getting themselves lost on the outer edges of the Acid wasteland's or wherever they've set themselves up today"

"Oh. Yes, of course" Perceptor rubbed his brow "Not that I could tell you where those Jurassic half-wits have gone today, they don't regard me with the same sort of respect they did Wheeljack and Ratchet"

Optimus nodded solemnly.  
"They may have told Cleancut their whereabouts then, possibly, regardless I'm surprised your Scope hasn't proved himself more present in this operation"

"Oh" Perceptor huffed and crossed his arms "Yes I'd hoped he would be more involved but he's more interested in, eugh, leeches of all things"

"Hm, yes he has been studying those for a while now, hasn't he? Couldn't you persuade him into this venture by claiming some vague interest in using leeches as natural filtration devices? Or contamination detectors?" Optimus offered some advice as they neared the exit.

"That could work, but I don't want to interrupt it all… I mean he needs the time to himself to figure things out and besides he never made those leeches from the start! He got them from somewhere else!" Perceptors optics began to shimmer and twinkle with excitement "He's collaborating! I don't know who with but it's a step in the right direction! He'll be socialising soon I just know it!"

As they stepped out onto the streets of the still rather worn and tattered city, the scars of war still marring the horizon Optimus smiled at his excited friend. He could comment that Perceptor had left it too long or was too lenient on his offspring but he didn't want to spoil the moment.

"Perceptor, maybe you should ask Scope to review his peer's mission report, he has an analytical mind, I'm sure he and Firewall can give a detailed analysis" Optimus beamed.

"Oh yes! Of course Prime!" Perceptor snapped upright, despite Optimus's usual request for his troops to stay relaxed and casual Perceptor still saluted the Prime as he left back to his own designated homestead leaving Optimus to mull over his thoughts.

* * *

"DJ"

The dark, dank, dripping tunnel echoed the name to and fro as the sound of splashing water echoed out into an almost static-like buzz.

"DJ! Answer your comm!" The voice snapped again and three Cybertronian figures paused, standing still as the rivers water washed over their legs.

"Couldn't ya have got someone more reliable than that cu-"

"Hey!" The second line was cut off quickly by the group's leader. Certainly the broadest of the trio the mech stood tall, wide dark red shoulders held up a blue helm with heterochromia optics peering grumpily at a wrist-mounted communications device.  
That one was named Guiltaur and he passed an irritable glare to the one he cut-off.

That one was named Ripraider, mostly grey in colour Ripraiders most notable feature was his Optics as well, he had four large optics that almost resembled flower petals blooming from his face. Although if you weren't looking at him you'd quickly understand the near-constant stream of profanity as he spoke was a very obvious part of him.

"Firewall!" The third figure barked jarring the other two to stare at her with a pang of surprise.  
She was shorter than the other two, a somewhat peachy pink in colour but both mechs wavered under her glare.  
"Firewall, someone with sense answer me!" Cleancut continued to her own communicator.

"Firewall here" Another femme buzzed over the line "You are progressing fine no?"

"DJ here" suddenly pinged from Guiltaurs communicator almost in response.

"Yeah we will now radio-heads finally remembered where he is" Cleancut finished off her conversation with brief acknowledgment from the femme on the other end.

"DJ, why didn't you respond? This is a team effort and you're meant to be giving us directions!" Guiltaur hissed.

"Chill brother, I have the map right here!" Paper rustled over the line.

"Fucking wonderful" Ripraider huffed sharing a similar look of being unimpressed with Cleancut.

"There's another fork in the river, which way should we go?" Guiltaur ignored his companions mumbles.

"Ooooh another one, eh? Not enough of you to split up and search for clues, this time, right? You know the other team hasn't had a single issue with their search" DJ crooned in a mildly melodic manner.

"We ARE looking for the source of contamination, DJ isn't likely to know which route it came from" Cleancut interjected.

"I know that!" Guiltaur suddenly seemed to jerk to life, desperately defending the actions he had been taking "It's just a team effort! Remember! Aaand as the good leader I am, I need to make sure everyone's playing their part! DJ can tell us if it's an unsafe route!" The longer the sentence went on the higher Guiltaur's voice seemed to get.

"Nah man, both are good, one on the left's a tight squeeze though" DJ interrupted before Guiltaur's 'self-defence' turned into a long-winded ramble.

"Good! We go right then!" Guiltaur straightened himself up as if nothing happened and flashed a charismatic smile which would've been far more appealing if it wasn't an obvious attempt at trying to smile himself into a better mood.

"Ripraider you were brought on this mission for two reasons remember, you could be far more helpful here" Cleancut side-stepped to be closer to the mech, her optics not moving from his.

"Aaaah you're a piece of shit, one I do respect, but a piece o' shit nonetheless!" Ripraider's four optics squinted down at Cleancut "But you fuckin' know I don't like transforming and I ain't gonna do it unless I gotta!"

"Honestly, I don't know how you could've messed up your alt mode Rip! I doubt I'll ever change from mine! The code I was created with had a wonderful alt mode if I do say so myself!" Guiltaur undeniably preened himself as he walked down the right passage, water noisily sloshing around his feet.

"Yeah well you just got the same shit-juggling alt mode as fuck-truck Prime! Hardly a fragging difference between ya!" Ripraider snorted angrily "Difference between the two of you is YOU need a proctologist to find ya goddamn head!"

"Don't speak back to your leader like that!" Guiltaur squawked awkwardly as his path meandered, the mech only just stopping himself from spinning around to stare down his 'subordinate' and ignore the small titter from Cleancut.

"Oh I'm fuckin' sorry sir, guess I ain't in the best of moods! Didn't get out of bed on the wrong side more did a pirouette into a steaming shit-pile eh?" Ripraider could not drop his confrontational attitude and it left Guiltaur bristling much to the former's amusement.

Ripraider didn't get a chance to drop any more snarky comments, seeing fit to nip the behaviour in the bud Cleancut put herself in between the two, her doorwing spread out just enough to make her presence clear to Ripraider and to cease his talking.

Still, irritable Guiltaur was near stomping through the water when he stopped at another opening.

The river flowed down this route too, but the direction of the passage lead in the opposite direction to the way they were heading.

"Does this river split into two?" Guiltaur turned to Cleancut who shrugged in response.

"DJ is meant to be reading the map and giving us directions"

Guiltaur took a tentative step towards the opening, shyly peering round the edge.

Ripraider needed to clasp a hand to his lip plates when Guiltaur leapt backwards like a startled cybercat. It was a pretty silly sight, especially as Guiltaur flailed so amazingly to try and right himself as quickly as possible.

"There's voices!" He hissed

"What?" Cleancut advanced on Guiltaur the larger mech quickly backing away to let her examine the opening "Yeah, you're right I can hear talking"

"Ain't no other fuckers meant to be down here right?" Ripraider looked between his companions but made no attempt to move.

"Yeah, yeah you're right!" Guiltaur suddenly seemed to flash to life as if he figured everything out, he drew up to his full height and put on a bold pose. His chest plates puffed out he replaced Cleancut at the opening of the new passageway.

"Hey you three" DJ 's mumbled voice came back over the communication line and Guiltaur shushed him "No, I need to tell you something before Firewall has my aft"  
Guiltaur practically slapped the communicator off and Cleancut offered a mildly apathetic but still somewhat confused glance to Ripraider.

"Right!" Suddenly put on a loud booming voice ensuring his words would echo down the passage "Whoever is down there identify yourself! You do not have clearance to be here!"

Cleancut still seemed unimpressed but her body arched, ready for whatever may happen and Ripraider quietly shuffled up next to the two.

It all seemed a bit pointless until the quiet echoes of the other voices fell silent at Guiltaur's words.


	2. Chapter 2

The only sound that remained was the constant flow of water, barely hindered by the bodies standing in its shallow depths.

Guiltaur was hunched, ready to jump on whatever emerged from the shadowed tunnel.

Cleancut seemed dubious after all, whatever was down there was probably another Autobot, but her tensed systems stayed on high alert regardless, it could still be anything. The pollutant coming from potential sabotage was still something she factored into her thoughts.

Ripraider was the least tense of the three, he would easily be able to see whatever was down there before his companions and have a better window for a response. He was also the only one grinning, just in case they ended up having a fight, and that would be something he'd enjoy.

After a tense few moments, some kind of life finally made itself known.

Deep down the pathway the water crashed and frothed audibly as something large charged down the hall.

Still clutching onto some form of bravado Guiltaur seemed unphased but ready to fight as he reared up with a yell

"How dare you charg-" He began.

Ripraider stepped back as something large and brown clattered into Guiltaur, knocking the haughty truck down into the water.

The real threat, however, was the small thing that launched itself from the others back.

That thing clattered straight into Guiltaurs face with an unyielding shriek of its own.

The brown and beige mech quickly struggled upright to avoid the flailing panic beneath it.

"Icebreaker! Fancy seeing a lil' fucker like you 'round here" Ripraider easily identified the mech.

Not that he was hard to identify.

Long thin arms and somewhat short legs had this mech hunched over into an ape-like pose and locomotion. His long neck ended in a beige helm whose only feature was three optics placed vertically on his face, the colours of which had earned the mech the unfortunate nickname of "Traffic lights".

"Ah, b-whu?" Icebreaker stuttered a bit, he seemed utterly confused and just a little panicked.

Ripraider laughed and slapped him on the back as he watched the brief chaos before them end.

Having grasped the situation just as quickly as Ripraider had, Cleancut's expression was deep with irritation as she bent over and grabbed the two struggling 'combatants' in each hand.

Wrenching one up by their shoulder and deliberately pinching her other hand into Guiltaur's neck cabling, making him tense up painfully.

"LEH'GO CREEPS!" The small flailing body still screeched, single-minded aggressiveness still clouding the young Mini-Con's processor.

Rockhopper was, as joked by many, a little firecracker. Despite her still, diminutive size the small lady was far too stubborn and willing to jump to action before getting any sort of information. Her headstrong nature was utterly like her Sire's and sometimes eclipsed her smarter qualities.

It took a few moments in Cleancut's grasp before the tiny femme calmed down enough to assess the situation, her tiny helm flicking about the tunnel with an indignant look.

She sniffed and crossed her arms after rubbing at her helm and the two tiny spikes on it and refused to look Cleancut in the Optic.

A few minutes later a third mech peered round the edge of the passageway opening.

Sandpiper was, as many people joked, one yawn away from a coma. Created and raised on Earth the turquoise mech easily comes off as lazy but he takes the Universe at a different, slower, pace.

Guiltaur seemed particularly unharmed by the event and was quickly back into his old ways.

"What was that all about!?" He snapped "What in the Universe possessed you to attack the mission leader?!"

"Not like you identified y'self!" Rockhopper quickly huffed out her mind still in a state of rebellious irritation.

Casually mumbling away quietly and unnoticed DJ was still present over the communication channel.

"Well that's what I was gonna tell you, that tunnel was just the other passageway coming back round and reconnecting man"

Guiltaur rubbed his brow and glared at his communicator as if he could transmit his own irritation through the device.

"Why didn't you say that BEFORE they went down there!?" He snapped.

"Well, you might've gone down a different route and not be in the area it reconnects to" DJ uttered nonchalantly.

"Bah! Whatever! I can handle it!" Guiltaur huffed as he quickly pushed past Cleancut and marched angrily down the waterway.

Cleancut rolled her optics but let the Mini-con in her grasp down, even though her size meant the water was much higher up on her, making her movement through the water humorous.

"I did say we should approach gently, there's no one but Autobots here" Sandpiper quietly added to the conversation "No need for confrontation on our own planet"

"Heh, yeah! Make love not war, right?" Icebreaker had already begun to slink off after the others but still chirped happily.

"Make peace dipshit, not everyone's into your brand of romance novels" Ripraider easily strode past Icebreaker to follow the other three, ignoring Icebreaker spluttering out in defence of his reading tastes.

Sandpiper sighed quietly, they were a funny pair even though he couldn't bring himself to be around Ripraider and his aggressive attitude for so long.

Rejoining with the group Guiltaur was on his communicator with DJ, while oblivious to Rockhopper clinging to his leg, making herself just high enough to not be totally encumbered by the water.

"Oh man, Firewalls come back" DJ was whining

"Good" Guiltaur retorted "You might finally pay attention"

"Ah, scrap!" DJ managed half as a snap at Guiltaur and half as a general curse before he shut off communications.

The underground pathway was starting to meander a little, erosion evident on the walls as they were stained with rust and warped portions of metal suffering under years and years of continual battering from the waters flow.

"You have progressed halfway from the entrance of the tunnel to the river's starting point" DJ suddenly came back his voice clear and sharp "Yes I'm telling them, Yes I know!" He started talking to someone else with him unaware he was still being picked up "YES I can see their tracker blips on the map! I can see! Oh go light something on fire, ow ow OW! OKAY!"

"Punch him 'til he squeals for mercy" Cleancut leant over to Guiltaur giving her own input without bothering with her own communicator.

"Hey! You're meant to be a medic! Have some sympathy!" DJ whined.

"No sympathy for morons" She retorted.

"How's about waiting for the rest of us 'mothertruckers', heh hehe, before you start wailing on someone, besides I think that ominous green glow might be our problem" Ripraider halted everyone with his arm in the air pointing over everyone's heads.

The comm lines buzzed muffled static as conversations stopped for everyone to peer further down the tunnel, trying to get an eye on the green glow.

It took a few moments of staring at darkness before everyone remembered why Ripraider was a sniper.

"Right of course!" Guiltaur tried salvaging what was an awkward situation in his head "Your optics are well suited for long range visuals! Lead the way!"

"Eech fine" Ripraider trudged to the front "but I'm only gonna lead you down this straight-pathway-with-no-other-directions 'cos I wanna get outta this fucking place so I can join in on the fightin'"

"Hey, Firewall only twisted my arm!" DJ lingered around in the conversation not having dropped communications for a moment.

"Yep, then I'll twist y' other arm! Or are you too nervous for a sparring match?" Ripraider continued undeterred.

"Quiet! You can bicker later and decide who punches who when we get this pollutant! We need to make a good impression here!" Guiltaur gave Ripraider a few nudges on the back to try and gee him into action while simultaneously ignoring the latter's disgruntled glare.

"YOU need to make a good impression more like" He muttered before jogging away putting a distance between himself and the group, which proceeded to pick up pace after him.

"Holy fuck me!" His lead meant the group of bots had the joy of hearing Ripraiders reaction to the source of the green glow first.

The loud, echoing splashing of footsteps picked up as it was a race to catch up and get a look in on this stuff.

Ripraider had placed himself dead centre of the passageway while staring with a deep frown at a patch of crystalline growths jutting out from the wall, partially submerged in the water explaining where the pollution probably came from.

"Ah! Excellent! See told you we'd all get there!" Guiltaur clasped his hands together "All we needed to do was follow the river and explore different routes!"

"We wouldn't need to explore different routes if our two water-based mechs would give us an analysis on the water" Cleancut corrected with an obvious flaw in their plan.

"I don't like my fucking alt mode alright?" Ripraider crossed his arms.

"No one asked me to transform" Icebreaker meekly added.

"It doesn't matter, we found this stuff together as team" Sandpiper also clasped his hands together while showering everyone with a serene smile.

"Oh brother" Rockhopper chirped.

"Plan?" Cleancut looked to Guiltaur reminding him of his purpose.

"Oh! Yeah, team, it's time to section off this part of the river! And, um, Yes place a locator here so it can be removed soon as possible! Cleancut! You have surgical tools on you, right? Collect a sample, we can send a team down to remove it when we know exactly what it is" Guiltaur removed his hands from each others grasp and put them on his side as if posing somewhat triumphantly.

Cleancut refused to utter a sound and keep a conversation going, quietly pulling out a pair of tongs and went to work, hoping to just pluck a chunk off.

"And the rest of us?" Rockhopper knocked on the bigger mechs leg to get his attention.

"Yeah, don't you think a team of six was a bit much, well seven if you count radio fuckhead?" Ripraider ignored any following protest from DJ.

"N-no!" Guiltaur tried to look offended that someone would pick fault with his command, but instead, he just looked like a kicked cyber-pup "This was a team mission so I gave everyone roles!"

"Let's add another role and bring this sample back for examination" Cleancut had wrenched a small chunk away from the central mass, wielding it in a pair of tongs she waved it nonchalantly making everyone back away from the green stuff.

"Yeah, we can hand it to Perceptor and let him look at it! Unless you know anything Piper?" Rockhopper was already climbing up Icebreaker's side, apparently feeling he was an adequate steed for a Mini-con.

"Oh no we can't" Guiltaur piped up, cutting off any response from Sandpiper who just shut his mouth and pretended he wasn't spoken to "This is OUR mission, not theirs, we give the sample to Scope"

"Oh fuck me this mission is doomed" Ripraider swore, his remark met with silence causing him to quickly look around the group "What? Don't tell me you all fucking like that creep? Whatever! I ain't handing that over to him in his creepy tower, this is where my participation ends!"

"Good" Cleancut stuck her arm out, making the curse-happy Autobot back off quickly as she pushed her way through the group and back down the tunnel.


	3. Chapter 3

The six-strong group quickly made it out of the underground riverway with little to no distractions.

No one misbehaved if they were following Cleancut.

Everyone knows not to piss off the medic.

Clambering out the water they prepared for their next move, which to some, meant splitting up.

"Right, see you shitwanks later, I'm off!" Ripraider made a mock salute as he wiped off the last drops of water clinging to his frame.

"No, no you're not!" Guiltaur jumped in front of the sniper "We have to drop this off and go for our evaluation!"

"We don't need fuckin' SIX of us to go drop one sample off!" Ripraider snapped back

"You still need your assessment!" Guiltaur was the first to drop into a snarl

"No, YOU can go get the assessment 'leader' and then YOU can go think about YOUR fuck-upperies while I go!"

Guiltaur growled angrily

"You're coming too! This is a team mission!"

"Yeah? How 'bout you make me?" Ripraider took a step forward, while everyone else watched silently through a mixture of cowardice and morbid curiosity to see what would happen.

Until a glowing, green shard of rock was shoved between them.

"Listen boys, I know at least seven ways to embed this deep within your olfactory sensors, so if you behave yourselves this will all go quicker and we can all GO quicker, okay?" Cleancut's voice lowered itself and a vague hint of an accent danced across her tone.

Guiltaur huffed and crossed his arms looking the other way as Ripraider stepped back.

"Good, Ripraider can go take his useless confrontational aft elsewhere and Guiltaur? Like Optimus would want all six of us bundled up into his Office, really now?"

"Yeah! There's no need to fight here, that's what we don't want" Sandpiper only put himself in the situation now it was defused "Peace and tranquillity right?"

"Oh Primus, shut up" Ripraider abandoned the group as fast as his legs could carry him.

Guiltaur turned to look at the rest of his group, hopeful in their cooperation.

Icebreaker wobbled under his gaze and started to slink away

"Yeah, uhm, I wasn't really a big part of this, I, uh, probably failed my assessment, so, yeah… I'll go… Bye" he mumbled away.

Rockhopper waved and scuttled away too.

With a resigned sigh, Guiltaur glanced between the two remaining team members.

"You're going to leave now?" he huffed.

"Oh no" Sandpiper put his hands together "I think I will assist Cleancut in taking the sample to Scope! Maybe I can talk to him"

Cleancut stifled a groan

"Damn, let's make this quick as possible then" She hissed.

With that, the last three parted ways and headed to different places of Cybertron.

"My friend…" Sandpiper smiled dreamily ignoring the pained expression that graced Cleancut's face. "You seem to get annoyed and stressed quickly, may I recommend some Chamomile?"

"I just don't tolerate morons well" Cleancut put an emphasis on 'morons' wondering if Sandpiper would figure out she didn't want to hear his blabbering.

"I just think we could benefit from the wonderful array of organic plants on Earth, I can easily make you some lavender oil to relax you!"

"Yes, the properties of _organic_ plants are really going to work on us _in-organic_ beings! Aren't YOU the one that ended up being dragged to Cybertron whimpering with a case of Cyber-Fleas so bad your paint had peeled?" Cleancut snapped, not wanting to hear about Sandpipers excessively sappy view of Earth and organic life, especially not after listening to unnecessary arguments that she knew she'd have to hear about all over again later.

"Well.. I… uh..." Sandpiper backed down a little, remembering how he somehow managed to get Cyber-fleas on Earth.

A place where they shouldn't even exist, it was embarrassing.

Cleancut didn't glance back at her partner, never getting the chance to witness the brief sad expression Sandpiper quickly shoved away, returning to his usual gentle smile.

Perceptor's abode sat near the old Space Bridge originally used by the Decepticons prior to Unicron's assault on Cybertron.

The Bridge itself had been crushed but a decent portion of the tower remained and had been reconstructed, initially to be a new Bridge but it was scrapped and the Bridge was placed elsewhere in a more open less-rubble filled portion of the city.

The tower became a simple tower and Perceptor lived in one of the buildings at its base, not that Perceptor used the tower much at all.

The Autobots didn't have the benefit of an entire team of talented, dedicated builders like the Decepticons had and so only the more commonly used portions of the city looked fresh.

The doorframe was peeling a little paint and slanted slightly. Albeit that was because Scope tried 'improving' it with one of his own makes, something Perceptor had encouraged, then promptly removed immediately when the device almost had the door lop someone's servos off.

With her free hand, Cleancut pounded heavily on the door.

Sandpiper winced a little bit with each thud as the door rattled, she was strong, unlike him.

Muffled clattering gave way to a chipper grin when the door slid back to show Perceptor.

"Oh my! To what do I owe this visit?" his knees bent a little as he went from face to face, greeting his young visitors.

"We'd like to see Scope if he's about" Cleancut had a wide smile on her face as if she hadn't been remotely irritated all day, quickly stifling her grouchy mood.

"Oh yes! He's here" Cleancut didn't lose her pleasant smile even as Perceptor spoke, of course he was there, he barely left "I'll go get him"

"No need" Cleancut stopped him "We want to give him something, in that tower I assume?"

"Oh, of course" Perceptor stepped back allowing the two in.

Elsewhere, Guiltaur stood in front of a door.

An assessment for their mission.

An assessment no doubt based on what Firewall had written, her job had been to collect all records of the area to find out if there were any old security systems in the tunnels on the off-chance they encountered them.

After that, she had no doubt kept tabs on everything that happened and had already delivered the notes to a 'superior officer'.

She was strict and harsh.

This probably won't go well.

Guiltaur tapped gently on the door hoping Optimus wouldn't hear him, or better yet just not be there.

He really hoped so, he didn't want an assessment, not now, maybe after a few minutes to calm himself he'd want it.

The first mission he had organised completely without a single bit of help from anyone else, not once did he ask anyone else for their input it was totally 100% organised by him.

And his fault if it was a failure.

"Yes? Do come in" Guiltaur swore in his head but went forward, slowly pushing the non-automated door open and shuffling inside.

"Ah! Guiltaur my boy! How can I help you?" Optimus sat at a desk with an array of papers in front of him, there was a lot of paperwork recently.

Some race called the 'Oogooszi' had been messaging Cybertron with requests for trading and other various things. It didn't help that these Oogooszi didn't seem to have much of a recognisable chain-of-command and it was hard to tell which Oogooszi to reply to, or if the same one would reply.

From what Guiltaur had seen they were also pretty lax, friendly and informal in their messages which didn't help.

Optimus seemed glad to shove the papers to the side and change the subject for a while.

Despite a mask covering his face, Guiltaur could feel the pride radiating from a smile directed at him.

It made the impending review more daunting.

"We… Collected a sample of the pollutant reported by the Dinobots" Guiltaur straightened himself up, he had to be professional for this.

He had to try anyway.

"Ah, excellent! What was it? I had wondered if there was a leak in a pipeline somewhere, something insignificant maybe" Optimus leant back in his chair but didn't lose his smile.

"Oh…" Guiltaur could feel the nagging urge to shrink away "We don't know just yet, Cleancut has taken a sample to Scope for analysis"

"Oh! Excellent! I had spoken to Perceptor earlier, I was hoping he'd be included in this"

"Y-yes he should have the sample by now, we'll know soon enough!" Guiltaur slapped a grin onto his face, so far nothing bad had happened.

"Wonderful. Now, Guiltaur, you know I can't give you any exceptions in this review..." Optimus spoke up again and Guiltaur felt his Spark make a personal visit to the floor "I have been given observational notes by Firewall, you took a team of six into the tunnels, tunnels that were already mapped"

"Ah, yes?" Guiltaur bit his lip plate.

"And you also had two on the surface, one keeping radio contact"

"Yes I did"

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why did you have so many in the tunnels with you? As well as keeping one on the radio AND having another person, who might I add, only had a short small role in the mission and was not given anything else to do"

"Oh, aaaah, well… Well! That's perfectly simple!" Guiltaur wasn't sure what he was about to say but the words were there and his processor thought they were good enough to go "I wanted to include everyone in this mission, but it was such a simple, easy mission! So I tested how everyone would handle working in a large team while also having little to do themselves! To see how they'd handle such a small simple role, this would mean I could see if they would begin to slack off if they felt their role was 'over' or not"

"Hm" Optimus thought over his words "That is an interesting thought pattern for this mission"

"Yes, I felt it would be good to see how people would handle having such a simple task!" Guiltaur had felt the stream of words finish and now he had to think of what to say next "Y'know, so I could see who would use it as an excuse to mess about or who would think or ask about what else they could do… and stuff..."

Silence hung in the air for a good few moments and Guiltaur had to push his knees together to stop them from wobbling.

"An interesting move, I can't really fault it, after all you were successful! There will be many times when the answer to a problem is something strange or convoluted!" Primes face lit up with another smile "I haven't fully read through Firewall's notes anyway! No chance" He gestured roughly to the Oogooszi papers.

Guiltaur let out a mix between a wheeze and sigh at the good result.

It must have been a bit loud as Optimus responded with a chuckle.

"Oh dear, were you worried all this time I would be disappointed in you?" Optimus stood up and pushed his chair away "Please don't fret, we all learn from mistakes, not victories"

"Yeah" Guiltaur let out a light chuckle as if it helped and not like he was still going to worry excessively next time he got 'reviewed'.

Optimus cocked his head slightly but quickly sidled up to Guiltaur putting his arm around the young mech.

"Come on now, I can read it in full later, how about we take a break from all this paperwork and play some Basketball, hm?"

Guiltaur perked up a little, he did enjoy that

"Yeah, I'd like that".


End file.
